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Games Interactivity CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO VERSION OF PRESENTATION

Games Interactivity CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO VERSION OF PRESENTATION

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In the Beginning . . .

• First electronic game: pong (nonnarative, developed on oscilloscope)

Types of Games• Arcade Games (Pac-Man, Missile Command)• Card, Logic, Puzzles, & Board Games (Solitaire, Monopoly)• Adventure Games: text, graphical, 3D

(Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto)• Simulation (Sims)• Strategy Games “Strats” (DrugWars)• First-Person Shooters (FPS)• Third-Person Shooters• Role-Playing Games (RPGs)• MMOs / MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role-playing

Game—e.g., World of Warcraft)• Sports Games• Serious Games (e.g., Newsgaming.com, GamesforChange.org)

Narrative and Non-narrative• Example of narrative game

• Example of non-narrative board game below

Nonlinear Narratives

Controlling the Narrative

Example

Third-person narrativefor self-esteem-buildingwww.josietrue.com by video artist Mary Flanagan

Chris Crawford says a game

• Usually has a “win condition” or at least a challenge and reward (there’s a difference).

Espen Aarseth says a game has:

• Rules

• A game world (material/semiotic systems)

• Gameplay (events resulting from application of the rules to the game world)

• Even nonnarrative games have this – solitaire)

Chris Crawford’s Tips

• What is interactivity?Playing with your dog?Reading a novel?

• “Act” is the key word in interact.It starts with verbs: run, jump, kill, build, feed, talk, die, etc.

• Allow the viewer to have inputAvoid too much “speaking” to the viewer.

Guidelines for Good Interactive Software Development

• Start with verbs. What can my viewer do? The more the better (example: Zoo project)

• Keep it fast.• Give feedback (example:

v1 Pieces of Herself)• Let player act and don’t tell

to much.• Don’t chastise your viewer

(e.g., “Wrong answer!”)• Make everything undoable

—they can try a different way and succeed.

(Cont’d)• Combine joyful play

(exploration) with competitive play (kill or be killed).

• Extremes don’t work: too boring, too intense

• Intensity does not necessarily mean richness (example, a ball is fun to play with as long as it’s going where it wants to go)

• Focus on process rather than facts (quizzes are deadly). Let people PLAY.

• What not to do: Math problems, quizzes, and meaningless puzzles that have to be solved to get to the next place or win.

Serious GamesFor Purposes Other Than Entertainment

Educational

Education

News Games

News Games• www.gamethenews.com

• “Plan Your Future Park” in Gotham Gazette.First-person game used as a journalism storyabout public works and park development. Civic

GamesForChange.org

Social Change

Electronic Literature

Public Relations

Advertising

First-person narrative viral marketing game (promotes shopping and buying these toys)The Asylum: Psychiatric Clinic for Abused Cuddly Toys (e.g., see “Hippo”)

DivaStarz third-person narrative toencourage shopping behaviorin young girls.

Interactivity in Learning

• Play is foundational to learning (interacting with material versus lectures)

• Interactivity engages the mind more profoundly than any other kind of expression (more than passive observation)

• The computer’s competitive advantage and artistic opportunity is this interactivity.

• Educational Games on the computer work for children under 10 (not advanced enough for older)

Questions?Group Work

Bibliography

• The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software by Chris Crawford, No Starch Press, 2002.

• First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game by Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Editor), Pat Harrigan (Editor), MIT Press, 2004.

• Additional Resources

Electronic Literature / Net Art

• To be thought-provoking

• To take us out of our everyday experience

• Political / Social Exploration

• Some of the same techniques

Jess Loseby – The Dream

The Dream• I dreampt I saw you there

• my little one

• my precious child

• amongst the

• WOLF CRIES

• smoke and fire

• and as i opened my arms to call your name

• blackness overtook my vision

• mothers rage gripped me and

• as I reached to take you from that place

• the cameras flashed

• the sirens screamed

• and instead of lifting you out

• i pulled us all under

You might not expect . . .

subRosa

Where do you find it?

• Electronic Literature Organization(www.eliterature.org)

• Museums (e.g., Whitney Artport)

• Festivals (SIGGRAPH, ISEA, FILE)

• Web Sites (Rhizome.org)

• Lots more

• www.julietdavis.com/studio/barbie.html

• www.julietdavis.com/studio/piecesofherself

• www.julietdavis.com/studio/altar-ations